Hahaha! I am in such a crunchy circle, that it would never occur to me that nursing over a year is odd. We had 2 birthday parties this weekend though, and both were a lot more mainstream, so one or two people asked if I was still nursing when they heard she was 1. I looked at them like they were crazy to think I should stop.

_________________My oven is bigger on the inside, and it produces lots of wibbly wobbly, cake wakey... stuff. - The PoopieB.

yep +1 on people saying "when are you going to be done?" now that baby is 6 months old. Haha my boss asked me how long I planned to continue for and I said something about "the World Health Organization says it's very beneficial to go to 2 years" (eep I may even be wrong about that!) and he said "yeah but I think they meant that for people who are sitting around in huts...". That was such an odd thing for him to say, because he is far from ignorant!also, while visiting my sister one of her stepkids who is 12 kinda followed me/Sierra around a lot 'cause she loves babies and while I was nursing once, she asked "Do you HAVE to breastfeed?" - I wasn't sure if she meant was it illegal NOT to or what, but my mom was standing nearby and said "Oh nobody in their right mind would breastfeed!", which was just classically offensive. I told the 12yr old "I don't HAVE to do anything, but it's really good for the baby."

well, technically your boss is right in a way. the benefits to breastfeeding a toddler in a developed country with access to clean water, nutritious food and proper sanitation go way down... the WHO is making that statement primarily for children in undeveloped countries where the alternative to not breastfeeding is formula made with unsafe water, or eating inadequate foods etc.

anyway, not that you shouldn't breastfeed as long as you want to, just that once you have a toddler who is eating a variety of foods well, other than a small immune boost and the emotional benefits, there's not much demonstrable benefit to nursing.

Ah, moo, AF just showed up here too, on Saturday. Freya's still a bit chewy, but hoping that another couple of days might give me a bit of relief. 11 months and 22 days....so close to a year of period freedom! (thank goodness, it didn't show up on her birthday!)

We went to the GP today for a Freya/mommy checkup and when she asked whether I was still feeding, I mentioned that I was hoping to continue maybe for another year and she said heartily "good!". So pleased. Thinking about night weaning in the not too far future, but only because we are having the sleep of the damned still.

A friend just started night weaning and they went from baby nursing every hour or so to 9 hours of solid sleep. Baby goes down at 7:30 and gets one last feeding at 9:30 and then no boobs until 7 am when they wake up. Its only been 2 days so far but my friend is relieved at how well it is going and how much better she feels now that she is getting sleep. Baby is one. So maybe nightweaning will be less fraught than you think?

_________________My oven is bigger on the inside, and it produces lots of wibbly wobbly, cake wakey... stuff. - The PoopieB.

I am officially a milk donor now - a lady just came and picked up about 250 oz - she has the most adorable twins!!! I am so glad the milk will be used - I tossed about 90 oz yesterday that tasted super funky and it made me soooo sad!!! I scalded a little milk yesterday and froze to have on hand if needed, but what a huge pain that is!

but my mom was standing nearby and said "Oh nobody in their right mind would breastfeed!", which was just classically offensive. I told the 12yr old "I don't HAVE to do anything, but it's really good for the baby."

hahah Butternut, that's my mom ah yes...I've learned to not bother responding because then she'll just try to say something fake-nice to placate me. But definitely one of the many reasons I'm glad my parents don't live in NYC anymore, even though it means no free babysitting!

annasrobbie, I'm so so sorry about the lipase thing...I've only heard of this recently and you are already being so super about pumping that I can't imagine having to do that extra step now too! so now do you just store milk in the fridge, or does that cause the funny taste too?

Tofulish, do you have any info about what your friend is doing when the baby wakes during the night? Sierra's still a little young but I'm already feeling like I may have to stop being lazy about just boobing her and going back to sleep and actually try to soothe her in other ways instead - mainly because I really, really want a couple hours of sleep without her attached to me occasionally.

annasrobbie, I'm so so sorry about the lipase thing...I've only heard of this recently and you are already being so super about pumping that I can't imagine having to do that extra step now too! so now do you just store milk in the fridge, or does that cause the funny taste too?

Happily he will take refrigerated milk even 4 or 5 days old (I read stories of poor ladies who couldn't keep their milk past the 12 hour mark!)

"Tofulish, do you have any info about what your friend is doing when the baby wakes during the night? Sierra's still a little young but I'm already feeling like I may have to stop being lazy about just boobing her and going back to sleep and actually try to soothe her in other ways instead - mainly because I really, really want a couple hours of sleep without her attached to me occasionally."

I think I am just lucky to have a good sleeper, but if Giles wakes up and I am pretty sure he isn't hungry (maybe because he just had 5 oz two hours ago) I typically will just reswaddle him, and adjust his little night cap and he usually goes back to sleep (he sleeps in his own room). If it is 3 or 4 am though I usually just breastfeed him because I figure he is probably hungry. He usually sleeps from 9pm to 5 or 6 am though. Hope I don't jinx myself!

Her daughter is a year old, and can understand that the boobies are away for the night. She calls nursing "nice." So she says "nice? nice?" And her mom says "no" but comforts her other ways - they are cosleeping so she cuddles and pets her back to sleep. They are doing that because her daughter was waking up almost every hour to nurse and it got so that my friend was getting almost no sleep and it was just a disaster. She is surprised and happy at how easily it seems to be going. Her next step is to move her daughter into the crib for the night. ATM the baby does cribs for naps only.

_________________My oven is bigger on the inside, and it produces lots of wibbly wobbly, cake wakey... stuff. - The PoopieB.

I just had to share that nursing a toddler creates the most hilarious set of circumstances in a day that I could have ever dreamed of. Guineapiglets first sentence (in sign language) was "mas leche" and now she comes running toward me full force signing "leche" frantically then lifts up my shirt, fiddles with the hook on the nursing bra and goes to town.

But quick question, I'm wondering if anyone else has noticed this. But now that we're on vacation Guineapiglet has slowly started eating less and less and nursing more and more. It's a little disappointing as she has historically been a fantastic eater and now she's down to nibbling on one meal, maybe one 1/2 meals a day and barely any snacks. Instead, when it's time to eat solid food she can be found crawling under my shirt. I'm not particularly worried but just a bit disappointing as we were on such a role with solid foods and she had started to replace a couple nursings with food and I've become less attached to the pump anytime I'm not with her.

I just got my period, so now I'm thinking that my nipple pain this week has been related to that. Now I feel bad blaming Scarlett! Ha.

I am already starting to get comments from conservative family members about whether I'm going to keep nursing her past 6 months, so I totally feel for you all with the nursing toddlers!

At thanksgiving I got a lot of "you're still nursing!" from guineapiglets dad's family. I'm sure my family might be thinking the same but are too scared to say anything ;) Now when people are shocked that a one year old is "still" nursing I simply say "well the guidelines recommend breastfeeding until AT LEAST 2 years of age" which usually shuts people up.

What I've never understood is why people ask you how long you plan to nurse if they don't want to hear the answer when I say "until she weans" or "until she doesn't want to anymore" people clutch their pearls and gasp in horror. It makes me laugh.

My favorite thing to say when I was breastfeeding in front of someone (Ezra still nurses, but just once in a while at home), and they asked how much longer I was planning on nursing, I would say, "Oh, probably just another minute or so. He's pretty efficient."

I liked playing the oblivious card, because if they really wanted to continue the inane conversation, they'd have to rephrase their question, and then it'd get all sorts of awkward, and I loved it.

Yes, sometimes I deflect the question by saying I'll stop nursing when she moves out or goes to college. I figure if I were to say "when she goes to kindergarten" everyone would think I was serious. (Not that I think there's anything wrong with that, but realistically I imagine I'll nurse her until she's 2 or 3.)

I know that breastfed babies don't really follow the conventional growth charts, but I was wondering if anyone's babies have dropped down in the percentiles significantly as they got older? At 10 months Sven had gone from being consistently top of the charts in weight and height to the 50th percentile. His head is still giant. I'm just wondering if I should be concerned (our pediatrician doesn't really talk about percentiles, I charted it after the appointment -- but now I guess I see whey she probably didn't want me fixated on percentiles!).

He started crawling at 6.5 months and is a crazy active kid. He still nurses a toooon and enjoys solids, and poops like five times a day. So it's normal, right? I can definitely see the weight tapering off with increased activity, but height too?

Both my kids were huge as young babies and then drooped down the charts. E was off the charts for weight and height til about 15 months-- then he pretty much stopped gaining weight to a year (no dietary changes, still nursing, way more active) and now at 3 he's a little above average for both height and weight. M was at the top of the chart for both at 0 months and 3 months. I can't remember where he was at 6 months. But at 9 months, he'd dropped to lower 90s for height and high 70s for weight. So, in my (limited, heh) experience, it sounds normal.

Oh yeah, they both have always had top of the chart huge heads. That's the one part of E that hasn't gone down the charts any!

Leela did something similar. She has been up in the 85% and as far down as the 50% and it changes at different appointments - I figured that the difference between 50% and 85% is sometimes just an inch or a pound, so its not that significant. And yes, her head is always in the 95% :)

_________________My oven is bigger on the inside, and it produces lots of wibbly wobbly, cake wakey... stuff. - The PoopieB.

Leela did something similar. She has been up in the 85% and as far down as the 50% and it changes at different appointments - I figured that the difference between 50% and 85% is sometimes just an inch or a pound, so its not that significant. And yes, her head is always in the 95% :)

But, even if the general trend was truly was downwards, that can still be normal-- some babies just start out big and end up small. A couple of the toddlers in our playgroup were like that and they are a mix of formula-fed and breastfed.